Lemon Poppyseed Acorn Squash Muffins

So I’ve made pumpkin muffins before and even sweet potato muffins. Why not acorn squash muffins?? After discovering tapioca flour because of the amazing cookbook, Primal Cravings, I’ve been using tapioca flour WAY more often. If you’re not into it, sorrybutnotsorry. This stuff makes it feel like you’re really having a naughty muffin again. And naughty is my style.

Yesterday I had some sort of stomach bug. And today it’s still creeping in the bathroom. No, not the kind of stomach bug where you’re hoping no one else is home because it’s humiliating what’s going on with you in your bathroom. No, nothing like that. But a stomach ache that just lingers, makes you feel uncomfortable, but still lets you eat. I don’t get it. It can’t be something I ate (or all the Sunday mimosas I consumed) since that would be out of my system by now. Maybe I have tapeworms. That’s always been a greatest fear of mine. Have you ever googled that sh*t? It’s movie story line frightening. Anywho, I don’t think I have a tapeworm. But I am uncomfortable. Today I will not let it ruin my life. Time to conquer the day.

Did you notice that it’s the last day of my giveaway??? Last chance to get eligible to win 12 paleo books to cascade your book shelves. You’ll have so many recipes, you won’t have to try a new one for at least a year. Except for my website recipes. OBVIOUSLY. Right? Right. Now go sign up before it’s too late!! The giveaway ends at 11:59 mountain time. Yep, mountain time. That’s the time zone I live in so I decided to confuse you all. Haha. I’m funny.

I’m excited for life recently. Well, that’s always. But change is coming. And I love change. I get lots of anxiety about it and worry about the change coming, but I think I like that feeling. I’ve lived in the same house now with two wonderful roommates for the past 3 years. Crazy it’s been three years now. I’ve trained for Regionals within the walls. I’ve created my blog within these walls. I’ve gone through break ups and make ups and crying sessions galore. I’ve drank, ate, laughed, and made a mess in the walls. I’ve walked out of these walls with my roommate to find my car stolen. Then found it the next day. I’ve really found out who I really am within these walls (even thought I find out something new every day). So leaving this wonderful house will be a sad day. You have to understand, this doesn’t happen for months, so even though I love the thrill of change, I love planning even more. Planning a new place I’m going to live is pretty exciting. Now I just have to find that place…

Pour wet ingredients from food processor into the dry ingredients bowl. Mix until well combined. Fold in poppy seeds. (the mixture will be a little thicker then runny muffin mix so don’t be freaked out)

Use an ice cream scoop to scoop equal amounts of the mixture into a muffin tin. This should fill 9-11 full muffins.

Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees. Bake muffins for 35-40 minutes. These will take longer than most because the acorn squash is so dense, so keep an eye on them, they may need longer based on your oven.

Remove from oven when they are slightly brown on the top and completely cooked through.

Try your bulk store first. Amazon is crazy expensive for that kind of stuff. Even my tiny little town sells it in a bulk store. (and coconut flour for dirt cheap compared to those tiny little bags, like honestly, 1/10 the price). I hate almond flour, so I use coconut or coconut/tapioca.

Ok! Not just me! Totally didn’t see lemon in the ingredients or the recipe…other than the title. Once I know how much lemon to use, I’m totally making these. I love that tapioca flour combo too! Cheaper than almond flour and tastes more “normal” than lots of other paleo treats I’ve made with just coconut flour or just almond flour.

Hey you! I love your blog and cannot wait to try those muffins. A lot of times there are ingredients that I’m not able to get here in Montreal(Canada) but I end up improvising ;)
It says lemon poppyseed but where is the lemon in the recipe?
Good luck with your new beginning !!

Hey! I love your site and I make your pumpkin muffins all the time because they are the best breakfast-on-the-run ever! I’m sorry you’re not feeling well but your stomach bug may not be a bug at all – it may be intolerance to tapioca. After I went gluten free, I started to experiment with different flours and I realized through process of elimination that tapioca starch does not agree with my digestive system at all. It literally took weeks to start feeling normal again! My nutritionist said that it’s not uncommon for people who cannot eat gluten to have bad reactions to other starches as well. Anyway, feel better, and best of luck with your big move!

Good call on the tapioca flour, the paleo-friendly baked goods that I think come out the best have a combo of almond, coconut and tapioca and/or arrowroot flours. Excited to try these – I have a whole tree of meyer lemons just waiting for me after I finish my 21DSD. PS – I LURVE house hunting. Please, please, please do a PaleOMG version of House Hunters!

Hmmmm, I’m gonna try these. I’ve made other biscuit/muffin type recipies (I’m allergic to tree nuts so almond flour is always a no go for me but can do coconut; I’m a freak, I know.) and they are SO spongey because of all the eggs. Like so drying I have to have a drink with them so I don’t choke. This is the first recipe I’ve seen without almond flour so fingers crossed! I just bought lots of squash and sweet potatoes :D

These look wonderful–and I just cooked a huge acorn squash so I have plenty ready to go. Love the drizzle of coconut butter on them–that stuff is dangerously good! I have just recently tried tapioca flour and think it really helps in the paleo baking dept. Good luck with your upcoming move!

These look FANTASTIC! can’t wait to make them. I love your blog too! When I need a good laugh (in a great way!) I read your posts. So thanks :)

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Tapioca. I heard that its only ok to eat on Paleo IF you are working out a lot and need those carbs. But if your not, its not the best. I mean I get it, here is an AWESOME and tasty muffin that wouldn’t tare up my gut… that 80/20 bit..but you say you have been using it a lot (tapioca). I see on here you do work out a lot, so is that why? THANKS! and I can’t wait to try this recipe :)

After reading this entry I thought perhaps your stomach upset May be caused by the Tapioca flour. I can’t eat it anymore because it just started to upset my stomach too much which is sad because I LOVE your raspberry lemon pancakes!

Recipe looks really good. Just wondering, I can’t have tapioca flour (no starch for me). Could I substitute a nut flour for the tapioca? Would I do a 1 to 1 sub or do I also need to add in more coconut flour. Thanks.

LOVE your blog! So I made these muffins yesterday but my batter made way more than 9-11? and they cooked really fast on the top but the bottoms were mushy?? Any idea where I went wrong, anyhoo even though they are a sloppy mess they still are amazing with coconut butter..coconut butter makes everything better :)

What a bummer!! I don’t know where things went wrong but I followed the recipe to a T and they would NOT cook. I ended up leaving them in the oven for 2 hours and they were still batter on the inside :(

Same thing just happened with mine. I haven’t had too much success with paleo treats (except the brownies). I live at the beach and is VERY humid here so I often wonder if that’s why mine are always way too wet inside. These had the best flavor – I ate their tops off :-)

SO TASTEY! The honey mixed with the coconut butter for the top is a must for the sweet toothers out there. Kinda spongey, like they don’t cut well, but I don’t mind! And they stick to your muffin liners. I will definitely be looking into these silicone liners you speak of.

Made these today, they were incredible! I will have to make a double batch tomorrow since they were such a hit. A note on the glaze: I mixed equal parts honey and coconut butter, melted them together, added lemon juice and poppy seeds to that and brushed it on each one. Ah.maz.ing

Yum! These look great!
I have been experiencing the same stomach problems. I’m able to eat and work out and go on with my life, but my gut is making me feel just slightly uncomfortable. :/
Sorry to bore you with my personal problems. Lol. Anyways, thanks for another great recipe!

I’m just making these now, had to replace the acorn squash with pumpkin as couldn’t find any. The only thing is that the mix was really firm, like it usually gets when you put coconut flour in it, it doesn’t exactly *pour* so I don’t think they are going to look like muffins at all :(

Hoping they will still be delicious though. anything I can do to stop that grainy mix?

Just wanted to say thanks for the recipe! Even my addicted to “white” foods 3 year old loved it. I subbed chia seeds for the poppy seeds and they felt exactly the same…can’t beat that! Also, I sort of totally spaced and left out the cup of tapioca flour and they still turned out delicious but probably denser than yours. However, for Angela above who can’t have the starch…it still works without the tapioca flour. I’ll be making another batch and this time I’ll follow the directions! Ha ha!

They didn’t work out too well in the end, I think maybe my oven wasn’t hot enough. They didn’t pour at all so they just stayed as exactly as I scooped them in. :( Will definitely try them again, but maybe more liquid next time?

Hmmm im not sure about using coconut sugar… Would be interested in your thoughts? Im doing Paleo to change my eating habits and to train myself to lose the craving for sweet things (I have a massive sweet tooth) so feel that using any sugar/honey (natural or not) defeats the purpose. I think you can add sufficients sweetness with fruit (I use a lot of bananas). Plus cocunut sugar is nearly impossible to come by in New Zealand. I guess whether you like this recipe or not depends on why you are on Paleo.

Awesome site though, has given me lots of good ideas that i hadnt previously thought of :)

In my personal opinion, eating fruit is going to keep pressing those feelings of craving sugar. The only time I’ve ever not craved sugar is when I’ve completely cut it all out, for a month, including the fruit and baked goods. So if you’re trying to cut sugar cravings out completely, I would try that for a month instead

I made these last night, and I really loved them! My were a bit mushy in the middle, but I don’t think it was undercooked. I did puree the acorn squash before I measured it, which was probably a mistake. I plan to experiment with this recipe to make it coconut-free so I can share it with my sister who is allergic to coconut. Any suggestions for replacing the coconut flour?

Hi Juli!! I NEED your help! I’ve made these muffins TWICE and they aren’t turning out! They’re mushy/uncooked on the inside no matter how long I leave them in the oven, no matter what size or shape I make them. Am I using too much squash? How did you get them looking fluffy on the inside? The batter is AMAZINGLY good so it would be nice to have these little things turn out. Thanks!

These came out wonderful! I had a house full of “non-paleo” eaters and all loved them! I did use less squash than called for, my squash was smaller and yeilded about 1 and 1/3 cups, don’t know if that’ll help with some issues with sogginess. Your reciepes have never failed me!

Wow!! I just made a batch and, although a little mushy in the middle, I can’t stop eating them! Holy crap, they’re good! I guess tomorrow on to batch number 2. Do you know if they will keep in the freezer? So I can make ahead for a quick breakfast on the go? Anyhow, this is by far the best paleo muffin I’ve had. Thank you!

These turned out great! I didn’t have quite 2 cups squash but I added chia seeds and about a cup of frozen blueberries. Even my ” I’m not eating anything paleo ” 10 year old loved them! Thanks for all your recipes, I use them almost daily. You’re awesome!!

Followed recipe exactly, minus the poppy seeds as I forgot them at the store. I chopped up sliced almonds instead. Flavor is great but mine turned out a bit mushy in the middle, but very brown on the outside. I will turn my oven to 325 degree next time to cook longer. Thanks for sharing.

I love this recipe and have made it several times but they never come out done…I end up burning the outside trying to get the inside done. Can I add extra tapioca flour to this for them to not be so mushy in the middle?

Doubled the recipe which was a good thing because half the muffin stuck to the muffin cup. Baked for 35 minutes and the tops were brown and a toothpick came out clean but the bottom half was still gooey like squash. Baked an additional 15 minutes and let cool, still squishy :(

I love your recipes and your cookbook makes me happy. :-) If anyone would like to try a flavor variation, I used Rosemary instead of poppy seeds. It was amazing with the honey drizzle. And note to self, I froze half the dozen to see if they would keep. It worked great! Let them thaw in the fridge and zap in the morning for breakfast. Fantastic! Probably my favorite paleo recipe ever! Thank you!